The invention relates to an armrest for an inside wall of a motor vehicle, in particular for a door, the armrest being of elongate shape along a main longitudinal axis, presenting a first end region along said axis, said first end region being connected to the wall by means of a connection member.
In general, armrests secured to a vehicle wall are formed directly in the inside trim of the door, which trim is itself usually made as a rigid one-piece molding of plastics material, or else they are formed as separate pieces that are fixed rigidly and permanently to a wall.
Such designs do not enable the position of the armrest to be adjusted as a function of the user. As a result user comfort is not optimized.
In certain up-market vehicles, a central armrest is provided that is adjustable, often by means that are expensive and bulky and unsuitable for transposing to door armrests .
One of the main objects of the invention is to remedy those drawbacks and to provide a wall armrest which is adjustable in position so that a user can adjust the height of a rest portion relative to the wall. Another object is to provide an armrest of the above type which is simple to manufacture and to use.
To this end, the connection member defines a pivoting connection about a substantially horizontal transverse axis enabling the armrest to move angularly relative to the wall, and the armrest includes a locking member co-operating with a stop piece secured to the wall and adapted to hold the armrest in modifiable manner in a selected angular position.
According to other characteristics:
the stop piece and the locking member have complementary notches and teeth extending radially relative to the pivot axis, said notches and teeth presenting a plurality of relative positions and being coupled together or uncoupled by relative movement in substantially longitudinal translation;
the stop piece has at least one notch while the locking member has a plurality of teeth;
the stop piece is fixed relative to the wall and the locking member has a rod that is slidable relative to the armrest in a substantially longitudinal direction;
a return spring acting in the sliding direction of the rod connects said rod to the armrest in such a manner as to apply a force tending to couple together the notches and the teeth;
the armrest presents a hollow inside volume in which the stop piece and at least a portion of the locking member carrying the teeth extend, an end portion of the rod extending to a top face of the armrest so as to constitute a control member;
the connection member comprises a shaft mounted to turn in a complementary hole of a fixing piece secured to the wall, and a friction ring engaged on said shaft and bearing against an adjacent wall of the fixing piece so as to exert torque that resists pivoting of the armrest relative to the wall;
the friction ring is made of a flexible elastic material, in particular of rubber;
the armrest is secured to a handle which presents a circularly arcuate rod centered on the pivot axis of the armrest, the rod being engaged in a hole formed through a substantially horizontal arm of a force transmission piece secured to the wall so as to enable the rod to slide freely through the hole with a small amount of radial clearance; and
the handle member is a hollow piece fitted to the armrest in a complementary recess, the rod extending downwards essentially in a recess within the armrest that is adapted to receive at least the perforated portion of the arm of the force transmission piece.
The invention also provides a motor vehicle including an armrest as described above.